Fiscal Rangers

Buyout Proposal for Schools Supt. Anna Cowin is Dead

Well, Tanya's article below says it all. So we will suffer through several more months of Cowin Catastrophes. vj ======================================= from THIS OrlandoSentinel.com page Lake school superintendent buyout likely won't fly Tanya Caldwell | Sentinel Staff Writer June 28, 2008 The buyout buzz is starting to fade almost as fast as it bloomed. The Lake County School Board can't give Superintendent Anna Cowin money to leave office early, said Bill Montford, the chief executive officer of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. "A School Board cannot arbitrarily go in, nor can she agree to, a buyout to a contract. There is no contract," Montford said. "She was elected by the people and she has an obligation to serve the people. The only person who can remove her is the governor, with just cause." Cowin doesn't even want to leave, said Montford, who said he spoke to her Thursday night. "She has no desire to leave anytime before her time," Montford said Friday. That may contradict what Cowin told School Board member Scott Strong, who said he thought Cowin was open to a buyout after speaking with her. He presented the idea to an overwhelmingly supportive School Board Thursday afternoon.... Read more →

Cowin Might Accept Buyout and Leave School District

Yesterday, the Lake County School Board (FL) had a special workshop to review deferred issues from Monday. But, back in one corner, Board member & pragmatic businessman Scott Strong lurked quietly with a secret idea, not even voicing a vote on some issues. The meeting went on about Supt. Anna Cowin (who was absent and in "the hospital"), and how upset the Board and more public comment speakers were about her plan to re-assign about 40 School administrators, mostly Assistant Principles. The Board members wound themselves tight into knots over the issue, and some said they wouldn't even vote on an alternative plan, just to show Cowin up, and defer the final vote until the following Monday's meeting. The Board was also upset about the lack of information from staff and the Supt. about a staffing plan for the "Title Services" department, and pending EEOC (discrimination) complaints form "disruptive" members of that staff. So, after lots of steam was vented, then Scott Strong blew the whistle, said he had info that the Supt. might accept a buyout offer, and the Board sat there dumbfounded, but Jimmy Conner was gleeful (see article below). So, most work was again deferred to Monday,... Read more →

Amazing - Cook County, IL (Chicago) to get Inspector General

Everytime you hear people talk about corruption in a local government, I think of the Chicago area government, always known as a hotbed of corruption, graft and bribes. Well, now, Chicago area's Cook County is about ready to select an independent Inspector General, and they are down to the final 2-3 candidates. Unfortunately, they are letting the BAR (attorneys) select the candidates, and one of the last two is an attorney. My belief, as a professional auditor, is that is why many problems are never fixed after an attorney is put in charge of an audit function. They focus on publicity and prosecutions, and don't have the background on accounting and controls to research, define and fix the work process problems that allowed the corruption or bribes to happen in the first place. That is the weakness of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), who I worked with (sometimes - reviewing their publicity generating reports) in Iraq. But, at least they will know how to prosecute the guys they do find. Good luck, Chicago! AND, as for Lake County, FL - having a central county wide auditor or inspector general would be a good move. The School District... Read more →

Lake School District Superintendant Anna Cowin Blamed for $485,000 Loss

I haven't commented much on Lake County School District management issues recently, figuring nothing would change until Supt. Anna Cowin leaves office in November. However, I went to the Lake County School District Board meeting Tuesday night and it was a "hoot". I even stayed until it ended about midnight, because I have left early before and missed some squabble that was then reported in the papers. But, at 11pm, Supt. Anna Cowin rattled her keys, packed her laptop, and left without any reason, which frosted the Board. Several things happened before and after she left: - The Board spent 60+ minutes on Cowin's reassignment of some 40 school administrators, including many Assistant Principles, while parents and teachers filled the public comments barrage with comments about problems caused by all the re-assignments. However, it was clear to me in the first 10 minutes that all the talk was a waste because the Board Attorney said Cowin had the legal right to do what she did, and it would be very hard for the Board to modify her actions. They are going to follow up on the issue today, Thursday, in a special workshop. One Board member, Jimmy Conner, probably had... Read more →

Comments about Florida Homeowner's Insurance

State Representative Alan Hays just sent out a newsletter to Lake County constituents, and on the front page focused two articles on two information websites related to Homeowner's insurance. Below is the letter I wrote to him. The legislature are scoundrels, along with Charlie Crist, for approving house insurance rates that increase fees to inland homeowners to subsidize the rates paid by coastal homeowners who have the highest risk of storm damage. ====================================== To Alan Hays at [email protected] The front page of your newsletter that was just sent out has two sections on “Ways You can save now on Homeowner’s Insurance premiums” but they both discriminate against owner’s of manufactured or mobile homes when there are some 1.4 million such homes in Florida. Why doesn’t the My Safe Florida Home inspection program cover manufactured homes, AND WHY DON’T THEY DISCLOSE THAT ON THEIR WEBSITE’S TOP PAGE? Why does the ShopandCompareRates.com website (that lists insurance companies ) only give examples for a block home and not manufactured homes. As an experienced corporate auditor, I think this website is a joke, and you should not portray it as being that useful, since it doesn’t cover other types of homes, and doesn’t include... Read more →

California Student Faces 38 year sentence for Hacking Into School Computers & Changing Grades

The article below says it all. Now, makes you wonder how SAFE and SECURE your School District's computer records are, and how easy it is a for a student to hack in and change grades? vj ============================================== Click HERE for source Ferris Bueller Wannabe Faces 38 Years in Prison After Changing Grades The Orange County ( California ) District Attorney is charging 18-year-old student Omar Khan with 69 felony counts, including identity theft, computer fraud, falsifying a public record and second degree burglary, all because he liked Matthew Broderick. In trying to emulate his idol, Khan allegedly "Brodericked" into Tesoro High School's computers to change his grades, just like that scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off where Ferris jumps on the computer and changes his attendance record, and that scene in War Games where Mathew Broderick changes Alley Sheedy’s marks. According to the DA and the Orange County Sheriff, Khan and fellow student Tanvir Singh committed the cyber-crimes (God I love that word) between January and May 2008, breaking into the school on numerous times using a stolen key. Khan also tried to steal a teacher's password to up his grades and those of 12 other students. But the dumbbells... Read more →

Lake School District Board Member Cindy Barrow on State Education Budget Issues

We mostly focus on fiscal management, but Lake County School District Board Member Cindy Barrow sent out an email about her trip to Tallahassee to get details on coming State Budget cuts that affect the school district. Cindy puts in a lot of hours on School District issues and has good credibility. From my point of fiscal management view, the practice of state legislators to mandate certain programs, or require "higher local effort" funding and not fund them is unethical, so remember that when you meet a State legislator - ask them why they play the games mentioned below. Perhaps the way to fix it is VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS until they stop playing such games and implement regulations to prohibit mandated programs without funding them (i.e. like requiring added PE classes, but not paying for it). But, maybe School officials need to kick the problem back to parents like Orange County Schools did - reducing and combining bus routes, and eliminating non-instructional programs. Why subsidize parents who want free transportation for their kids - charge them actual cost or don't provide it. Read and weep... vj ============================================= Disclosure: Cindy Barrow, Lake County School Board Member is writing this update... Read more →

Ross Perot is Baaaaack with MORE Charts!!!

We mostly focus on local government fiscal management, but when Big Daddy Ross comes back, we need to discuss it! Remember Ross Perot and his charts when he ran for President? I still have a box of tshirts and caps from those days. Now he is back - again with a website www.PerotCharts.com which, amazingly, has more charts! Again, Ross is pushing the idea that the US is overspending and out of control with big budget deficits (who knew?) Until now, no one was really focusing on the budget deficit except David Walker, former head of the Federal GAO ( Government Accountability Office) who made numerous presentations on the subject. Walker, however, left the GAO recently to run a new, billion dollar private foundation setup by the founder of the Blackstone private equity company. So, apparently Ross has been planning this and has spent some $300,000 to setup the website and he has returned with some new research and new charts! Read the article below and then go to http://perotcharts.com/ and be educated about the new budget deficit. vj ======================================= from the Sacramento Bee David S. Broder: Ross Perot is back with more charts By David S. Broder - Published... Read more →

Lake County School District Staff Fails to Provide Budget Details

We all know Florida State is cutting back on budgets for School Districts and other government agencies. So what happens when you have a School District staff that apparently cannot provide budget details to the School District Board to evaluate how to fund needed positions? Well, the poor legacy of lame duck Lake County School District Anna Cowin continues - read this narrative from School Board member Cindy Barrow: From Cindy Barrow, Board Member: My pre-amble to this article is to give you one example of the budgeting frustration the board has encountered. There are two teaching positions in our district with different titles and different job responsibilities. They are: Potential Specialists who work specifically with our lowest quartile students to prevent drop-out and promote academic achievement, and our ILS positions that provide the needed assistance to our teachers to use the new technology that they are given to increases student success. The administration put this item on our agenda one time to decide how to fund these two positions; I put the item on a workshop agenda one time; and then I put the item on the last regular school board agenda. This is a total of three attempts... Read more →

Tampa area County Loses $2-million Grant and Asked to Return another $827,000 in Federal Funds

An apparent mistake made by Tampa County administrators resulted in them losing a $2-million HUD grant due to missing a deadline, and being asked to return another $827,000 to HUD. This is an interesting tale how County staff relied upon a verbal statement from a Federal HUD employee and an internal email to implement an action to sell some apartments that had previously been rehabbed with HUD grant funds if they remained "affordable" AND apparently the units could not be sold without HUD approval. Unfortunately, a staffer said he received a verbal OK from HUD when they should have received the approval in writing, and sold the apartments. Lessons learned: - Don't miss deadlines for grant funding. - Don't violate a grant condition based upon a verbal discussion without specific written approval. vj =============================================== Two are blamed in rehab debacle By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer Published Monday, June 9, 2008 11:47 PM TAMPA — First, Hillsborough County's Affordable Housing Office was forced to forfeit $2-million in federal grant money for missing a deadline. Then the office was asked to return an additional $827,000 for mishandling an apartment rehab project. Now, reports blame a past and current employee of the... Read more →

Columbus, Ohio School District Loses Control of Sam's Club paid Membership cards

Businesses periodically review spending patterns for cost reductions. But, as the story below says, School District's don't seem to monitor even the easy, small stuff. Apparently, an audit found that the School District was paying fees for Sam's Club membership cards for many people, including former students, former District employees and one parent, plus "dozens" of employees that did not need them. The District also didn't have any process to obtain the cards back from people once they left the District. The money isn't much, about $3,000, but it is the lack of a control process that is disturbing. Someone in the HR department or Finance should be sanctioned for not having such a control proceduree to ensure only authorized District staff were using the discount cards, ESPECIALLY if the District was paying a fee for them. It makes you wonder what other control processes are missing. However, one positive indicator was that a Principal asked for, and got an audit based upon his initial concerns. vj ===================================================== from the local NBC TV affiliate in Columbus, Ohio: http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news.apx.-content-articles-CMH-2008-06-03-0009.html Audit Finds Unnecessary Spending In Columbus Schools Tuesday, Jun 03, 2008 - 09:52 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio -- According to an audit of... Read more →